A widget (or “gadget”) is an interactive desktop applet for providing a service to a user, such as by pulling information from the Internet and displaying it in a useful way, or by writing information to enterprise internal systems or public systems. This information could be, for example, current news or weather, dictionary definitions, maps, task or reminder data, or language-translated content.
A widget engine is a host application that provides the underlying functionality for a widget. Popular widget engines include the YAHOO!® widget engine, the SpringWidgets widget engine, the Kapsules widget engine, the GOOGLE DESKTOP™ widget engine, the KLIPFOLIO™ widget engine, and the WINDOWS VISTA® gadget engine.